Beet-cutting machiney.



'1.1. J. BINKLEY. BEET CUTTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 4, 1912.

1,075,624. Patented oct.14 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

R. J. BINKLEY.

1mm cu'rme momma.

APPLIOATIOIN'PILED NOV. 4. 1912.

Patented Oct. 14', 1913.

2 summum 2;

STA-EEQATENT OFFCE'- ...nom n`I'NxLEY, or CHINO',4 auiromsrra, AissiGNoB, oF THREE-@Mns To minimis)v Vgir;priser on cnrNqcimroRNI'A, AND. THREETTENTHS To Bonner a. STEPS, or

Los News surnom.

Tanzi wiomamiy' commi;

Bea known that i, Rome. 13m-mi,

Sie of california, have inyeniedjcertizi-"new 'and useful in Beetvention relates A to' improvements in hgcapaeity niaehineslto be'used insu'gar re eri/es for cutting sti-'gar beets intoQ-shred` aire'soaked in the liquid of diffusion tanks. 'ivliierey as much. of thesugar as possible is ont `from the vshreds inthe ,time

-frhQ-geth'll objeotof this invention is to land 4efficient mechanical ,combination `which vcan perform its. functtmtis'praeticahiefer leaving the shredsin even when thedemands of large Sl. Sla-ger; refining. erethrbwn upon it .and

the prineipalspeefic. object of the invention i. elieiently produce long shreds having thin-'leaves joined substantially; like'in la I' and almostto theexclusion of shreds having othergshapedjseotions- When shreds ,ofthis-eharac'ter are thrown into the diffusion 'tanks the liquid can actupon the thin 'leaves from both sides of each leaf, and in a given timecan therefore abstracttlie `sugar to'a :greater degree of thoroughness than f* was es sihle wit-hthe relatively thicker solid Shi'l having the various rectangular sec' f tions that-,were cut/by ymost of the. former vmachines'used in large sugar refineries. yBy

. adoptingthe. invention considerable annual Als'aniri'i'rgscari-be-'e1',l"eCted, both byincreasing 4o' the 'amount of 'sugarl` that may beabstracted from a .poundofshreds in a given, time sol thatilessjsugar is'oast to waste in :the soaked Shredgandfalso by. expediting the abstract 'ing operations :in the diusion"'tanks.

1 VAnother object fof' the invention is `to cure perfect cont-rol over the thicknessl of- 'each' individual shred insteadof dgendng merely on' changingthe average.' kness A ofallfthe 'shreds taken together. d-ju'sting thetbiekness of the shreds is important,`be cause of the different percentages of sugar contained iii-beets grown i-rixdifferent fields and `under diterenteircumsta'nces, and' because the cshreds from beets lthus die'ring .SPeGication of Letters Patent. f.

tiled November 4, 191,2, Serial E?.

BsE'r-ctr'ifrlisrG-MACHINL i Y Patented oct; 114, 1913.

in-sugarvcontent should be of diHerent`tliick-- nesses, so that the liquid Ain the diffusion tanks can withdraw the sugar toabout the same degree of thoroughness from all beets irrespective of their sugaiicontent; This' being .the case, it is obviously.` advantageousto have control over-tlietliickness-of pracf t-icallyeaoh `indiridual shred "rather than oiilyrover the average thicknessfvbf-"all .the

-disposedwith relation tov .the corrugated counter-plate or guide+bar that en -greater portion of the knife edged/is exposed to the` l beet 'and foreign matter inthe drum', thus 'providing for the severance .of grass and :rags y which sometimes enter the mach-ine Withfthe beets.' The ability of my machine .to readily cutt-his .foreign niatteravoids the delaymiid inconvenience occasioned; by 4 the clogging of the old machines under similar circumstances. y

The accompanying drawings'illustrate the invention. j Figure lis a vtransverse vertioal'section .of the machine embodying my invention,

taken ,o n line -1'.of'Fig. 2, and, looking lin the direction o-fthe arrows. Part of the.

drum andv stationary i casing 'have been broken away-to show-internal parts. Fig. 2 is a vertical axial Sectio-ii of .the machine taken on line zof Fig. l, part of the .outer upper4 portion of the'v drum' being shown.

This View somewhat diagrammatic, but indicates the alin'em'ent between the corrugations of tlieg'knive's and the Corrugations of the guide-bar, which alinement extends laround the whole periphery of the drum. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view showing anordina'ry sectionl plate provided with knives and 'with iny-eorrugated guidehars, `the plate being in sect-ion.` Fig.. ifisan enlarged plan showing lthedetails of one.

knife and its adjacent -guidebar in their Vactual relative positions, and the arrow in.

dcates the direction in 'which' these eie-A ments move during normal cutting. Fig. 5

ino

indicated @here one side' of the guide` Y.

' rugated bar. Fig. 7 shows a beet as cut by a cornife, said beet resting on the corrugations of my improved guide-bar` The dotted lines show lwhere the next succeeding 'corrugated knife edge lies, and indicates how the corrugations on the guide-bar hold the corrugations on the beet face in exact alinement with the corrugations Qf the next the same, both theknives and guide-bar in built integral with the hopper 10.

this ligure illustrating a further improved modification overthe form shown in Fig. 4. The arrow indicates' the direction in which the construction travels during the normal cutting operation. F ig'. 11 is a sectional elevation through line w of Fig. 12 and shows the details of my further improved modified' ,guide-bar shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 12 is a front elevation of a fragment of the saine improved guide-bar.

Having above `described the basicprinciples and novelty upon which -this. invention rests I will now describe the-"general construction of a higlrcapacity rotatingdrum machine, and *,yillmparticulaly show and describe the newcorrugatedadjustable and r0tatabl`eguidebars whereby. the advantages ofmy. invention are attained.

In general, 1 is a knife-supporting drum comprising the rear circular flange or web 2 and peripheral bars 3. The rear web 2 is unperforated except at the central hub` 4 through which passes the supportingand driving shaft 5, theh'ub and drum being fastened to the same by the set-screw 6. .The "driving shaft is supported on one side by the bearing 7 mounted on a suitable stand-' ard 8,l and on the other side by 'bearing 9 Surrounding the periphery and fitting up close tothe forward side of the drum, is a. stathis guard plate is to protect the operator from the revolving parts, and also to prevent the beets from falling out of the drum during operation.

Upon the limer face of the drum, and

practically comprising a part of the drum,

are mounted section plates 13 fastened by bolts 14 which pass through the rear [lange 2, and hold the section plates against longitudinal motion in the direction parallel to '65 shaft 5. The outer periphery of said plates Thel purpose of being longer than the innerA periphery, the complete circle of plates coperate with each other on the arch principle-'io supportthemselves radially, and prevent any one section from falling towardthe center. The peripheral bars 3 ofg'the drum lie adjacent the abutting ends ofA the section plates and will prevent the same from flying away from the center. By this means the section plates are bound together so as to form a strong rigid shell or drum, the plates being covered on their outer side only by the narrow bars 3.

Upon the inner surface of the section plates are carried the cutting lmives'l and counter-plates'or guide-bars 16. B y referring more' particularly to Fig. 3, the means of nmunting these knives and guide-bars may be clearlyseen. The knives are rigidly supported on seats 17 of the section plate, through which seats pass suitable apertures tures and are provided at. their upper ends The bolts 19 pass through these aperson.

with fiat wedge-shaped heads,20 adapted to lie in the wedge-shaped grogves 21 of the knife. 7 hen the nut 22 is screwed tightly nto the other threaded end 'of`4 the bolt, the said wedge-shaped heads will bind the knife tightly to its seat 17./The grooves 21 extending longitudinally of the knife, will p'ermit some adjustment of the same'along the seat 17.

The concave seat 23 on the section plate is adapted/tosupportthe guide-bar 16 which i has a similar and coperating convex' seat 26, the section plate being .provided adja' cent the seat 23 with a series of elongated apertures or slots 24. The guide-bar is pro- I .A

vided with series of studs 27, one passing through each of the elongated slots 24, and the lower or outer extremities of the studs being provided with washers 2S which are j held in place by nuts 29.v y In the region approximately `between/the knife 15 and the guide-bar 16,v the 4section plate is provided with a wide slot 30 through which the shreds or cossettes are dischargedfrom the inner side of the drum to its outer 'Hated plane 3l, the crests and troughs of substantially said corrugations running perpendicular to the knife edge 31. From thetrough of thc corrugations, and extending downward are the cutting' projections 32, Fig. 5, serving to cut the beet into shreds or cossettes rather than into `corrugated sheets as'` might be the case if the saidfprojections were omitted.

`ln prior machines of the character describml the upper or guidingfaces of the guide-bars 16 were flat, but the purposes of providing the guiding ace r'ny invention are attained principally by o f said'` guide rs with corrugations 33"'similar to the corrugations 31 of the knife, said corru ations on the'guide-bar being alined trough or trough and crest for crestl With the corrugations of theknife-see Figs. 2, 4, 6 and 10. This .alined relation is maintained not only between the corrugations of one knife and its adjacent guide-bar,i but is continuous over all the knives and guide-barsaround the whole drum, as indicated in Fig. 2. It is advantageous that both longitudinal sides of the corrugations 33 of the guide-bar be beveled off t0 an apex 33. vAs will be better understood hereinafter this permits the beet to be taken up ontoy the'guide-bar gradually and without bruising. ,Itl also permits the guide-bar 'to be reversed so that its both sides may 'be used. 'l

When the nut 29 is loosened' upon -the 'and `27,'the,guide-1m v1e may be rocked upon seat- 23, thereby raising and lowering the extreme' guiding edge 34, Fig. 3, of the bar with 'respect to the cutting edge 31 of the knife. It is by this means that the ad justment of the former {iat-faced guide-bars is attained and the adjustment of my novel' corrugated .guide-bars may be atta1ned1in' thesame manner. It will be understood thaty the higher the guiding yedge 134 is raised, the lthinner will be the shred of beet cut bythe edge of the knife,y so that the adjustment for shred thickness depends on the point at which nut 29 is fastened.

Referring now to some other pats which A are usedkin these machines, a stationary n apron 35, B

ig. 1, is seen to project outward horizontallyl and downwardly from the next succeeding knives.

i shaft 5, and

f shaft 5 guard-plate 11, said apron extending across the full width of the drum. The purpose of this apron is to arrest the beets and to hold them'quiet and rm a ainst the rolling in# fiuence 'of' the 'revolving drum. 1 In this y manner the stationary apron absolutely disl courages any interference with the operation `whereby thecorrugations in the guide-bar 'are delivering vand guiding the cutl beets onto the successive knives with the corruga" tionsv previously cut into said cut beets in exact alinementwith the corrugationsof the If desired, someA suitable conveying means 36 may also be provided beneath the drum, saidconveying means serving-to receive. the shreds discharged through apertures 30, and .to convey said shreds away .from the machine. Ad driving .pulley 38 may also be mounted yon wer for rotating vthe drumi may be imparted through belt 37. The turning force 1s imparted to the drum through by, any suitable means such as belt 3,7 acting on pulley 38.

-. ,In yusing 'the' inachiiievembodyingm'y invention, the`beets are emptied upon hopper 10 and roll by their own weight through opening 12 into the revolving drum 1, where the knives commence their' Shredding. action immediately. Fig. 7 shows a beet as cut by a knife, the cut surface'39 havingffeorrugations corresponding to thOseof the kinfe wh'ich'cuts it. After assing off the corrugated surface of the fe, thebeets may -shiftwhile' gliding'over the Hat uncorrugated;l portion 41 of the knives, Fig` 4, but

the corrugations cut into the beets willnext' drop upon the alined .eorrugations33 of the following guide-bar. The beets will automatically be drawn into a position relative to the corrugated bar 16 as shown in F' 7, and the corrugations in said'bar will lt 'en hold the beet from further shifting, S0 that' the'bcet willfbe delivered against the lnextlknife edge lwith the corrugations previousl -cut into the beet in exact alinement wit the .corrugations of said knife. ed .In

this manner ,the next knife will cutmto the beet along the dotted line 40, Fig. 7, thus producing the .V- 0r U-,Shaped vshreds shown in Fig.'8. 'The thickness through the leaves of these shreds will depend on the adjust-ment ofv the guide-bar as previously explained. u

I he successive knives and guide-bars being alternately placed in series and having their corresponding corru ations allalined, the beet in effect passes rom knife to bar to the next knife and next bar, etc., its corrugated cut face always being brought and held in line with the corrugations `of the knives by the corrugations of the guidebars. Under these conditions the machine will operate to uniformly produce shreds havin the U or V-shape shown in Fig. 8. This s ape is not secured unless the guidebarjis provided with my corrugations, and the successful uniform cutting 'of such shreds is secured because the apron is stationary within the revolving drum whereby the beets are'held quiet, Aand the alinin action ofthe guide-bars goes on undisturbe When finally the shreds reach the diffusion tank, .the rapidity with which the liquid there will 'abstract their sugar depends on the amount ofsurface they present. With my V section, a relatively great surface erl pound of shreds is secured and the difuslon process is accordingl hastened. The thoroughness with whic the liquid 'will labstract the sugar from the vshred will also depend.; on its tliicknessand by proper adjustment ofthe guide-bar the leavesof the V section may be exceedingly thin, as compared with the shreds of 1n the. old machines.

*The detailed advantages secured by my invention have .been heretofore described and further .reference thereto )leed nOt be' made here. e

In. practice two knivesy are-usttally'lg ig. 9 produced cated side by side before each guide-bar, so

that if one knife is nicked or broken, both need not be replaced. The value of the knives being considerable, this feature is important. The usual machines are also provided with eight section plates, each being provided with three guide-bars and three sets of knives, but obviouslyv the number of section plates, and the number of knives and guide-'bars 0n each section plate may be varied according to the judgment of the designer, and such variation does not affect the invention herein disclosed.

The knife shown in Fig. 4 represents an old form ordinarily used in prior rotating drum beet cutters'. It gives perfectly satisthe next succeeding guide-bar.

factory service in connection with this invention, but it seems possible that for the purposesrequired it may be improved somewhat. As the eut beet passes from the corrugations 3ltoward the rear of the blade Fig. 4, the beet encounters the uncorrugated knife portion 41, and in this region a beet might at infrequent intervals slip unusually far so that its corrugated face might not be caught up properly on the corrugations of To avoid this possibility and to make the passage of v,the out corrugated beet face even more positive-from the cutting edge of the knife to the next succeeding guide-bar, etc., I prefer to continue the eorrugations 31 along the Whole length of the knife to its rear edge 42 as shown in Fig. 10. It will be seen then that the slippin vof the beet is practically impossibleiand tiat the corr'fugations on its cut face cannot become disanranged with respect to those of the cutters or guides. Of

V course all the advantages, hereinbefore carefully described, of holding the beets quiet by having the apron stationary in the revolving drum operate to give the same, or even greater, satisfaction with this form of knife as with the form of knife shown in Fig. 4. Again it may be seen from Fig. 4 that small beets, or the thin flake remaining after a large beet has been almost completely cut up, may sometimes be driven right out through the slit between the cutting edge 31 of the knifeand the adjacent side of the guide-bar. Vhen this condition obtains the vertical knife cutting portions 32 may be missed and the beet will issue in the form of a thick flake rather than a V-shaped Cossette. To avoid this objection I have invented the novel guide-bar shown in Figs. 10, 11 and l2, which has suitable projections 43 all along both its longitudinal sides the said projections being adapted to extend beneath the corrugations as indicated in Fig. 10. By this means the perpendicular opening between the knife edge 3l and the body of the lguide-bar is practically blocked and the beet the aforesaid jamming and must always pass the,knife in such manner as to be cut into perfect V-shreds by the vvertical cutting portions Fig. 1,1 shows the upper surface of the transverse corrugations 33 beveled on both longitudinal sides toward the apex 33. The double bevel and the double row of projections 43, one on each side of the guidebar, adapts same t0 be reversible so that after one side of the bar becomes unsatisfactory for purposes of guiding the beet'against the cutting edge the bar may be reversed so as to bring its other side into operative posit/ion. The projections 43 may also be beveled off at their outer extremities 44, this 4being desirable in order to permit the V- shreds to easily pass off these projections. In other respects the guide-bar of Fig. 11 is formed and adjusted similar to that shown in Fig. 3.

I claimz- 1. In combination, a revoluble drum adapted to hold beets, and said drum having its axis of rotation substantially horizontal, corrugated knives mounted around the internal periphery of said drum, and corrugated guide bars for said knives, said guide bars being also mounted around the internal periphery of said drum, and the crests of the guide bar corrngations being substantially alined with the crests of the knife eorrugations, so that substantially U- shaped shredsl may be cut. f

2. In combination, a revoluble drum adapted to hold beets, said drum having itsA said beets substantially quiet within the drum.

3. In combination, a revoluble drum adapted to hold beets, said drum having its axis of ro-tation substantially horizontal, corrugated knives mounted around the internal periphery of said drum, corrugated guide bars for said knives, said guide bars being also mounted around the internal periphery of said drum, the crests of the guide bar corrugations being substantially alined with the crests of the knife corrugations, so that substantially U-shaped shreds may be cut, and saidl corrugated guide bars being adjustably mounted with respect to the knife edges so that the thickness substantially of each individual shred may be controlled, and a stationary apron in said drinn for holding the beets substantially qu'iet in the drum.

4. In a beet cutter,` rotatably mounted tions, said guide-bar being beveled along knives and guide-bars, said knives and both longitudinal sides, and projections guide-bars being alternately placedwith re from the side of said bar adapted to secure spect to each other, corrugationson said the uniform eutting of cossettes. 15

5 knives and guide-bars, the corrugations .of In testimony .whereof I have. hereunto set the knives being alin'ed withthe corrugamy Vhand at Chino, California, this 26th tions of the guide-bars, and projections on day of October, 1912.

said guide-bars adapted to extend beneath ROBAH J. BINICLEY. the corrugations of said knives. In presence of- 10' A guide-bar for rotary beet cutters, ERNEST N. SoPER,

said `guide-bar having transverse corruga# B. G.,GWIN. 

